Odyssey - Odyssey Connect

#1

Odyssey (https://www.odyssey.org/) was biggest hackathon around blockchain and AI (with 1500 people) last year, and this year there are 21 challenges, among which there are a few for which Threefold technology is an evident solution (Conscious cities, Self-sovereign identity and Inclusive Safety Communities as an examples, there might be others).
Why not take the challenge with a team and show the world what Threefold can bring.

Event is in April, application deadline is Feb 24.
Next week (Feb 4-5), there is already the Connect event, where experts explain the challenge, with a.o. Christopher Allen (W3C), really renowned within SSI

Anyone of the community interested ?

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#2

It would be great to join the event as a partner, either as a “community partner”, “ecosystem partner” or a “tech friend”:

“To become a partner, reach out to Stefan Kunst, sk@odyssey.org”

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#3

Interesting!

@Sacha @Roel @sabrinasbot let’s take a look at this.

#4

Looks really interesting. There are a few topics where I think we could make a difference, such as ‘Conscious Cities’, ‘Public Safety & Security’ and ‘Self-Souvereign Identity’. Let’s talk about it in the next marketing meeting.

Odyssey connects governments, corporates and non-profits with innovative entrepreneurs from around the world to let them jointly tackle 21st-century challenges. Together, we create an interconnected, multi-stakeholder ecosystem to build a future.

Each season is a 10-month journey starting from problem identification to building the solutions and implementing pilots.

Throughout this journey we bring together stakeholders with whom we articulate the challenges, exchange knowledge and prepare for the 48-hour hackathon, where selected teams develop prototypes, supported by all program partners and 200+ specialized experts, such as legal advisors and financial regulators.

Since 2016, more than 230 prototypes have emerged from the program addressing the challenges of over 40 partners. The goal of each partner is to elevate the best teams and solutions to multi-stakeholder pilots after the Hackathon.

Odyssey is now in season 4, with the 2020 edition of the hackathon coming up on April 3-5 in Groningen, the Netherlands.

#5

@Geert is at Odyssey Connect today and tomorrow and will update us afterwards! :raised_hands:

#6

I was indeed present at Odyssey Connect, which is the preparation event for Odyssey, the biggest blockchain hackathon in the world. In fact, I shouldn’t call it ‘blockchain hackathon’, I feel it’s moving also more into an event around ‘decentralization’ and how to build a sustainable world with it.
I was impressed by the organisation as well as the event, and the key speakers were top:

  • Marc Buckley is a renowned speaker and official UN SDG Advocate, talking about ‘resilient desirable futures’
  • Christopher Allen (W3C) is a well-known name in the IT space, being at the cradle of TLS protocol (but regretting that it has become too much centralized), and who is now doing amazing work on self-sovereign identity. The video of his presentation is already available, I recommend everyone to have a look at it. Especially the moment where he described that too much efficiency and centralization in the Dutch administration lead to the death of millions of jews was an eye-opener and shows the need for SSI, something that is also possible with our own 3bot. Have a look: video
    SSI is a becoming a hot topic, and one of the 4 major blockchain interests within the EU (with ESSIF they want to set up a full framework, and we might extend that subject not limiting the ‘identity’ to your static information, but your full digital life :slight_smile: ).

I met quite some people and was able to explain Threefold, most of them were baffled and surprised they didn’t hear yet from us.
And now I’m in contact with the organisers of the event (people also active in the Dutch Blockchain Coalition), to see whether we can help the organisation in providing internet capacity to the 1500 participants early April. That could give us some major exposure to the development community, esp as the way we do it totally fits in their values. It might be too soon for us and too short notice to be able to do the job, we’ll discuss about that with them in the next few weeks.
There is a warm welcome to interested people to join the hackathon around 21 challenges, on April 3-5.
In any case, it was great being there, I enjoyed it a lot !

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#7

Awesome! great stuff @Geert!